Break free from gas, civil society urges EU energy ministers

Brussels, 12 June 2025 – Civil society organisations gathering outside the EU Council headquarters in Brussels urged European energy ministers to break free from fossil gas completely, and not to simply replace Russian gas with other suppliers, including liquified gas (LNG) from the US. [1]

An activist dressed to represent the European Union, face-painted with the EU flag, was attached to a giant 2-metre-across inflatable ball and chain, labelled ‘fossil gas’, while other activists held a banner reading ‘break free from gas’. [2] The protest comes ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers on 16 June, where they will discuss and vote on a proposal to weaken the EU’s rules on methane pollution, in order to facilitate imports of climate-wrecking gas. The organisations, together with over 70 other Civil Society Organisations and think tanks, also wrote to the energy ministers to warn them of the dangers of this deregulation of methane rules.

In their statement, they said: “Replacing one source of polluting gas with another is a disaster for the climate, and for households’ energy bills, but some energy ministers are determined to strip away rules on methane pollution to do just that. Swapping Putin’s gas for Trump’s gas, or any other gas, does nothing for energy security, it just changes who can extort the EU – and communities near extraction sites will pay with their health, while people in Europe pay with their wallets. The EU and its governments must instead fully commit to energy efficiency, moving to a fully renewable energy system and protecting those suffering from energy poverty.” 

A draft agreement between energy ministers, published by Contexte on 11 June, proposed including the EU’s methane pollution rules in an upcoming effort by the European Commission to deregulate some of the EU’s energy laws. The EU’s methane regulation sets rules for the energy sector to monitor and report on the methane pollution from all fossil fuels, in the EU and along its global supply chains, and to reduce the amount of methane leaking into the atmosphere. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, with an impact on global heating over 80 times as powerful as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. [3]

The EU is exploring weakening its methane rules explicitly to facilitate increased imports of liquified fossil gas from the US, according to reporting by Reuters. Civil society organisations are warning that this would have terrible impacts on communities living near drilling and refining installations in the US, and would increase the climate pollution from fossil-fuel-heavy industries in Europe, like petrochemicals.

An analysis by Strategic Perspectives shows the EU can achieve a close-to-full gas phaseout by 2040 and dramatically save on energy import costs. By expanding renewable energy and cutting gas imports, the EU has already saved billions of euros; civil society organisations are urging the EU to continue this trend. 

Notes to editors:

[1] The organisations, in alphabetical order, are: Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, Food & Water Action Europe, Greenpeace, Oil Change International (OCI), Razom We Stand and WeMove Europe.  

[2] High quality photos from the protest, free to use, are available here 

[3] Climate Action Network Europe and Food & Water Europe’s briefing on the EU Methane Regulation